It’s April already and that means spring! Bring on the fresh spring produce, asparagus, strawberries, lettuces… I’m so excited. Our garden is finally planted and as I write we are getting lots of rain. I’m hoping to see some lettuce coming up soon.
A new month means it’s time for another In My Kitchen post. Thanks to the lovely Maureen at Orgasmic Chef for hosting this monthly roundup. March was a busy month and yet I seem to have forgotten most of what happened in the kitchen!
In my kitchen I have some new purchases from an Etsy shop. Let me just say Etsy is dangerous! I justify it by saying I was spending my “play” money. Every now and then I cash out my Ibotta account and spend the money on something I wouldn’t normally get. This time it was a coconut shell salad serving spoon and fork. I also got a set of 5 coconut shell dessert spoons.
I also have a new waffle iron. This one makes the thicker Belgian style waffles. I’ve used it a couple times and we’ve all enjoyed the results. In a couple weeks it will be strawberry picking season here and that means waffles covered in berries and whipped cream. I also have some recipe testing to do with Liège waffles.
I’ve been using spelt flour quite a bit lately. It goes in everything from my sourdough breads to muffins, pancakes, waffles and cookies. It is nearly impossible to find it locally, let alone in a decent sized bag so I finally ordered a 25 lb bag along with a matching bread flour bag. What did we ever do before Amazon?! I’ll bag these flours up in gallon bags and freeze it.
Finally I have a couple beers I got Josh. We went up to my parent’s house for Easter. My brother came in from Seattle Thursday and we got in later that night. The boys had so much fun with their uncle, we hadn’t seen him in three and a half years! We ate, drank and played hard. Josh had to come back for work but I found a couple beers for him when we went to Wicked Weed Pub in Asheville.
All right, I confess Nick picked out the beer. I’m not a beer drinker so let him do the picking. He is a beer sales rep after all, he knows his stuff! Seems we need to get a few more bottles of the one on the right. The vehicle pictured strongly resembles Josh’s ’78 Subaru wagon, lovingly known as “The Stick of Butter”. My mom is the master of removing labels so she going to try to get the label off the bottle for us.
That about sums up what’s been happening in our kitchen this month. April will be a fun one, Josh and the boys will make my birthday cake for their first time. My mom has always done it in the last but now she doesn’t live here anymore, time to get the men baking! Pop on by Orgasmic Chef to see what is happening in kitchens across the world.
Feeding My 3 Sons 
Love those spoons!! And love spelt flour 🙂
The first loaf with revived sourdough starter and spelt is in the oven now. Spelt is fantastic, no more need for white whole wheat flour, spelt has a better flavor.
It does, I love it 😀
Did you use 100% spelt with your sourdough starter?
The starter is all bread flour. The loaf was about half bread flour and half spelt. Turned out delicious! Now it’s time to play around again, adding seeds and all my other goodies!
Lovely!!! Spelt flour definitely needs some sort of stability, I usually mix it with strong white flour too. The seeds will be fab with it 😀
I now feed my starter rye flour, it LOVES it, really responds well every time I feed it ☺️
Those spoons are awesome!
I’m still trying to figure out what to make to use the spoons!
Great set of spoons. It’s not that easy to find spelt flour in bulk here either, but I stumbled on a store close by that has every grain you can imagine. That was a piece of luck. We love to try beers from small brewers too
I’m excited about the spelt. Lots of baking to do now! Asheville is now the beer city of the East so plenty of drinking to do there! Also a great cidery with hard ciders.
I’m interested in those flours!
I just got them bagged and in the freezer this morning. I’m looking forward to them. Spelt is so difficult to find here. I’ve only seen it in a small bag at Whole Foods. Assuming you have storage space this is much more economical.
Your mention of berries, Belgian waffles and whipped cream make me want to run to my waffle iron. (Great photo by the way!) I admire too how disciplined you are and alot Etsy play money. Your coconut servers and spoons look like great utensils for a family gathering…which is indeed a wonderful way to spend time =) P.s. I’ve got spelt in my freezer and you’ve inspired me to take the flour out. Does it add a different taste or texture?
Love seeing bags of flour. I’ve never tried waffles, must do that, I believe sourdough ones are lovely. Have fun with the birthday cake making tutorial! 🙂
The bags of flour are fantastic. I like sourdough pancakes, I have yet to make sourdough waffles. Soon hopefully.
That is a lot of flour Gretchen, I can’t wait to see the results of your baking.
I freeze the flour so it stays fresh and pull it out as needed. So many breads to bake and other goodies!
Oh dear, my comment went AWOL.
Was saying how I adore your spoons and think its time I re-investigate getting a waffle iron.
Have a beautiful day.
🙂 Mandy xo
The spoons are rather cute. As for the waffle iron, we are enjoying it. Time to experiment with Liege waffles this week.
I swap out white flour for spelt all the time – but 100% spelt sourdough never worked for me. Sandra aka Lady Red Specs has had great results though so check out her recipes. Beautiful spoons – and yes, easy is very dangerous!
I’ve been watching Sandra’s spelt breads. They look beautiful. Hubby got,me something from Etsy for my birthday, he knows me so well!
Etsy can be very dangerous. I have been rather fortunte and able to window shop! The coconut crockery are just utterly gorgeous. I have a small bag made from a coconut shell that I hardly use these days,
I am loving the coconut shell spoons. Etsy opens up my chances to buy handcrafted products from around the world, dangerous indeed.
terrific spoons! they look so cute. i love etsy but my wallet doesn’t. 🙂 the waffle iron looks like there will be many waffles to come in your kitchen.
I love the spoons too. I try to stay away from Etsy as it can get me into trouble! Hubby managed to get me something great from there for my birthday though. Hopefully this weekend I’ll get to liege waffles.